1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a use management apparatus for a plurality of cassettes, assembled in, e.g., a video tape recorder (to be abbreviated to as a VTR hereinafter), a digital audio tape recorder (to be abbreviated to as a DAT hereinafter), and the like, for, when these recorders have a function of automatically exchanging a plurality of cassettes, managing, e.g., a use order of the cassettes.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, many television programs tend to be long. In addition, with the advent of satellite broadcast, programs broadcast around or after midnight are becoming increasingly popular. For this reason, VTRs tend to have a recording mode allowing a long-time recording operation during a user's absence.
However, since an existing VTR can load only one tape cassette, a long-time recording operation, or a recording capacity for an absent recording operation, is limited. Since the cassette size is standardized, limitations are imposed on the manufacture of large-capacity cassette tapes. In order to solve these problems, in some proposals, VTRs are arranged to be able to load a plurality of cassettes.
When VTRs are arranged to be able to load a plurality of cassettes, however, various means for associating various functions of VTRs with a plurality of cassettes are required.
For example, when a long-time recording or play operation is performed using a plurality of cassettes, a cassette automatic exchange function must be managed. In addition, the use order of the cassettes must also be managed. However, when the use order of the cassettes is always automatically determined, it is sometimes inconvenient for a user, resulting in poor versatility in VTR cassette management.